Oriole # 1030- Stefan Crichton

Wow, so this is almost like a real blog again, if only for one week. I've finally had the proper time and motivation to write about all of these new O's, and am blazing through all the 2017 debuts.

Up today, is yet another relief pitcher, by the name of Stefan Crichton (it's pronounced ste-FON CRY-ton for those of you who might care about that sort of thing).

The Orioles drafted Stefan in the 23rd round of the 2013 out of TCU, and he has spent the ensuing parts of five seasons by making stops at every level of the Orioles minor league system. He was always solid but not spectacular, and didn't appear on any top prospect lists. The Orioles obviously liked him enough to keep promoting him through the farm system and he was included in the players the Orioles sent to play in the Arizona Fall League in 2016.

However, he wasn't on the map enough to earn an invite to the big league camp for Spring Training 2017 which made his rise to the majors even more interesting. Buck Showalter has a penchant for bringing over a handful of guys from minor league camp for every Orioles spring game, and Crichton was frequently one of those players. He ended up pitching in eight games, and only allowed four hits over eight innings of work while striking out seven and earning four saves. Take what you will about the typical minor leaguer versus minor leaguer end of spring games, but he clearly put himself on the radar. 

Stefan was recalled to the Orioles on April 16th for the first time this season when Zach Britton was placed on the DL, also unfortunely for the first of now two trips there thus far, and made his MLB and Orioles debut that same day. Regrettably, his spring success has not carried over to the regular season, and he has allowed at least one earned run over each of his three appearances for the Orioles to this point, and his ERA sits at 10.80 over 3.1 innings pitched. 

He is one of the handful of players riding the Baltimore-Norfolk carousel, and has already had two separate stints with the O's and three distinct spells spent with the Tides. Who know what the rest of the season will bring, but here's to hoping that Stefan can redirect his successes in Florida to Baltimore.

Crichton was honestly so far off of my radar that I didn't even ask my dad to make Old Man Cards of his until after Spring Training. Stefan kindly signed these for me at the same game that I had success with Wade Miley and Alec Asher, so I was very happy to knock off three guys I was hoping to have sign for me in a single day. 

Oriole # 1029- Alec Asher

Moving along through this season's debuts, I've finally pushed past the guys who debuted on Opening Day and am ready to move along to the guys who made their O's debuts as the season got under way.

The first non-Opening Day debut was a bit of a surprising one. Alec Asher only came into the Orioles organization at the tail-end of Spring Training, as he was traded from the Phillies to the Orioles on March 28 for cash considerations. To the best of my recollection, he appeared in just one Spring Training game, but there was still some talk that he could break camp with the team. That didn't end up being the case, but it didn't take long for Asher to make his first appearance in Birdland.

He was recalled from AAA Norfolk on April 15th, and made his O's debut the same day. He started the game against the Blue Jays and was great; he lasted 6.1 innings, and only gave up 3 hits and 1 run while striking out 5. Now the 2017 Jays' team doesn't exactly seem like a powerhouse but it was still a promising debut.

Since that game, he has made one more start, and is generally being used out of the bullpen as the right-handed long reliever. He is also one of the about seven relievers riding the Baltimore-Norfolk carousel, and has already bounced back and forth twice. Buck Showalter really does love optionable guys in the 'pen.

Alec was kind enough to sign this card for me at one of the Orioles games that I was able to make it so far this year. It was the same game that I finally was able to get Wade Miley's autograph as well, so it was a pretty exciting day for me, autograph-wise. And I'm quite confident that I'm the only person around with a signed Alec Asher Orioles card, as usual thanks to my Dad for making it happen.

Good luck in Baltimore Alec!

Oriole # 1027- Craig Gentry

Finally, it's time to wrap up the Orioles who debut on Opening Day of 2017, which is just over five weeks ago at this point. 

Craig Gentry made his Orioles debut as a pinch-runner in the 10th inning of the Opening Day contest against the Blue Jays. He remained in the game to play right field. He has pretty much been used that way in a majority of his games so far this season; in the 31 games he's played appeared in, just eight have been starts while the rest came as a defensive replacement or pinch-runner. 

Craig signed with the Orioles on February 20th, as Spring Training was already under way, and was an extreme long-shot to make the Opening Day roster. At the time, it seemed like a AAA depth signing, somewhat due to his Rangers ties with hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh. The fact that he and Chris Davis are good friends and appeared in each others' weddings didn't hurt his chances with the Oriole either, but he still needed to perform.

Craig went on to shock everyone and break camp with the O's. He hit .321 with a .429 OBP over 29 spring games, and his playing time was certainly aided by Adam Jones playing the World Baseball Classic in addition to some injuries to other outfielders in camp.

As you can tell, Craig was a generous signer to both my dad and me during our time in Sarasota, and the card up top is heading for my collection. Good luck in Baltimore, Craig!

Oriole #1026- Seth Smith

Wow, look at me, once again working on the 2017 Oriole debuts, and posting almost within a month of the debut. Get your breaking news here folks. But seriously, my tentative goal is to catch up on the 2017 debuts by the end of next week and then actually post about debuts shortly after they actually occur. But who knows, I'm always playing catch up around here.

Seth Smith was one of three Orioles who made their debuts on Opening Day 2017, and took the field at the same as Welington Castillo in the top of the first inning. I used my tried and true debut tie-breaker to place Castillo (2, catcher) ahead of Smith (9, right field) based on their position numbers. Makes sense, right? Typically I only have to use the tie-breaker on Opening Day every year, with a few random, rare exceptions that pop up every handful of years during the season. Things generally aren't going well for a team if they have two position players debuting in the same game during the middle of a season. Trust me, I've been an Orioles fan a long, and suffered through the 1998-2011 incompetency with the rest of you.

Back to Smith, who came into the Orioles organization via a trade with the Mariners on January 6, that sent Yovani Gallardo back to Seattle. Regardless of how Seth performs for the Orioles, I don't think many Orioles fans will miss Yovani, who was 6-8 with a 5.42 ERA in his lone season in Baltimore. And does anyone else notice how the Orioles and Mariners seem to trade with each other almost every season? Seriously, on the Orioles 25 man roster, Adam Jones, Mark Trumbo, Chris Tillman, Wade Miley, and Smith all came to the Orioles via a trade with the Mariners. That's crazy.

As of today, Seth has appeared in 16 of the Orioles' 27 games. He missed a few games with a hamstring injury, and has generally been on the bench against left-handed starters. He's hitting .286 for the year, and his 4-4 performance yesterday against the Red Sox actually raised his average .064 points from .222 prior to the game. He's also hit 2 HR, including one in the 7th inning of a game on April 7th against the Yankees that put the Orioles ahead to stay.

Over his 11 year MLB career, Seth has played for the Rockies, A's Padres, Mariners, and now the Orioles. He will be a free agent after this season, so it's possible that his time in Baltimore will be relatively short. A story that I found interesting about Seth is how he was the backup quaterback to Eli Manning when they played at Ole Miss.

As was the case with the Welington Castillo autograph that I posted about a few weeks back, my dad got this card signed during Spring Training for me. So not only does he make all of these Old Man Cards to get signed, he gets them signed as well! I actually did get Seth to sign once while I was down there but he didn't personalize that card. So my dad hooked me up with the personalized autograph after I was back in snowy Maryland. Thanks as always old man!

Oriole #1015- Ariel Miranda

In my attempts to continue posting about the 2017 Orioles debuts, I realized that I had skipped over a debut from last year, so I'm going back before I move forward. To be honest, Ariel Miranda's Orioles debut last season came as a relative surprise to me, and I wasn't ready with an autograph of his for my collection.

The Orioles had signed the lefty out of Cuba in July 2015, and he spent time with the Gulf Coast O's, Hi A Frederick, and AA Bowie through the last half of that season. He had moved up to the AAA Norfolk Tides in 2016 and was having a decent, if not spectacular season there, with a 3-7 record and a 4.06 ERA when the Orioles selected his contract on July 3.

The team was playing in Seattle at the time and Ariel appeared in the game that day; he pitched 2 innings and gave up three earned runs. And that was it for his Orioles career. The very next day, he was optioned back to Norfolk, and he would be traded to the Mariners less than a month later in return for Wade Miley.

At the time of his debut, he didn't have a single professional baseball card in any set, not even in the minors. (He was eventually included in the 2016 Tides set which came out shortly afterwards.) It was honestly hard to even find a picture of him in an Orioles uniform, but my dad and I dug up this shot of him with the Gulf Coast O's, and my dad's Old Man Card printing press was in action yet again. I then found a Seattle connection who was able to help me get the card signed a few months later and I was finally able to cross Ariel off of my need list.

Since the trade, Ariel has a 7-4 record with a 3.62 ERA over 16 games (15 starts) with the Mariners. Over that same time, Miley has gone 3-6 with a 4.76 ERA for the Orioles covering 16 starts. On paper, it seems like the Orioles should have just stuck with Ariel, but you win some and you lose some! Good luck to him in the future, at least if he's not pitching against the O's!

Oriole # 1020- Wade Miley

Well, it finally happened, after attempting to get an Orioles card signed by Wade Miley since he was traded to the Orioles last July, I'm finally able to scratch him off of my need list. And it only took me nine months!

Wade came to the Orioles organization via a trade with the Mariners on July 31, 2016; the O's sent prospect Ariel Miranda to Seattle to complete the deal. Probably within a week of the transaction, my dad had made Wade Miley Orioles Old Man Cards, and I attempted to get them signed a handful of times through the end of the 2016 season. Every time I was at a game, Wade consistently ignored requests from fans to sign. I even had him one on one a couple times and was turned down. 

After the 2016 season, Wade was included in the 2016 Topps Update set as an Oriole (the personalized card on the left), and I had to officially include him on my autograph need list. Oh well, I figured that I could knock his autograph out at Fanfest in January. Except he wasn't there, which is really strange considering that almost every US based member of the team attends the yearly event, which I assume is a contractual obligation. 

Ok, I thought, well I can hopefully get him at Spring Training. But that didn't work out either. I was waved off a few times by him and I didn't see him sign once over the week that I was in Sarasota. By that point, I was pretty bummed out, as Spring Training is generally the best bet to knock out some of the tougher players, as they generally seem more willing to sign with the smaller crowds and more relaxed environment. One of my other autographing friends who spent the entire of duration of Spring Training attending O's games didn't have any luck with Wade either. 

To top things off, I couldn't even find any signed Orioles cards for sale anywhere. Which kind of indicated to me that I wasn't the only person who Wade was not signing for, and my frustrations continued.

Until yesterday. Sunday's have historically been the best day to get pitchers' autographs at Camden Yards as there isn't any batting practice on the field and most of them seem to do long toss or other warm-ups in front of the fans. Wade appeared to be throwing a bullpen session when I got to the came, and as he was walking back to the dugout, some fans called him over. 

I didn't have much hope, but he came over and probably signed autographs for 20 minutes. He probably signed for 200 people, and since I wasn't sure if I would have another chance to get his autograph, I asked him to sign two cards and he obliged. He signed my son's ball as well, and honestly seemed very personable and friendly. He was joking around with everyone and seemed to be a pretty nice guy. What a nice turn of events, and I can rest easy knowing that my autograph need list just got a little shorter. Thanks Wade!

Oriole #1025- Welington Castillo

Welcome to the 2017 Orioles baseball season, starting only four days late here at the Great Orioles Autograph Project; which let's face it, is pretty timely for me these days.

This year's Opening Day roster includes four new faces to the Orioles. (In addition to one that I still am trying to track down from last year, since a Wade Miley Orioles autograph has continued to elude me since he was traded to the O's last August.) The new members to the 2017 Baltimore Orioles 25 man Opening Day roster are C Welington Castillo, OF Seth Smith, OF Craig Gentry, and LHP Vidal Nuno. Three of those guys made their Orioles debuts on Opening Day, and I'm guessing that you can figure out who this post is about by the little clue up there at the top.

Let me just get this out of the way first. Matt Wieters, the former top prospect, my favorite player, and the O's regular catcher for most of the past eight seasons is no longer on the team. That's a tough thing for a fan to deal with, but the writing had been on the wall. I was shocked that he was back in 2016, as he became one of the first ever free agents to accept a qualifying offer from his former team. It was nearly a foregone conclusion that he wouldn't be back after the O's did not extend another offer after the 2016 season.

Unfortunately, he never attained the level of success that the Orioles or their fans had hoped for; I mean this guy was the top prospect in all of baseball at one point and some people were ready to anoint his as a Hall of Famer in waiting before his MLB debut. I admit, I overvalued him early on, but I was not alone. I will miss him being on the Orioles, especially since he's now playing for the somewhat-rival Natinals, but I enjoyed rooting for him for a long time. Now I just need to figure out who my new favorite Oriole will be!

So anyway, no pressure on Welington Castillo from me or anything...he's only replacing the guy who had been my favorite player for about a decade. But realistically, he very well might be an offensive and defensive upgrade over Wieters, and anything that makes the Orioles better is a good thing for all of us. The Orioles signed Castillo to a one year deal with an option on December 16th after the Diamondbacks surprisingly released him.

As another year begins, my dad once again came through with his Old Man Cards (OMCs) to help ensure that I can have signed Orioles cards of any possible player for my collection. He really enjoys making them, and I really appreciate his help. In addition to making this card, he actually got it signed for me too, since Welington was with the Dominican World Baseball Classic team for the duration of my time in Sarasota this year. It must be nice to be semi-retired and be able to spend a month down there, hopefully I can live that life in another 30 years! But I won't complain about a short (mostly yearly) trip to balmy Florida!

Welington has played in both of the Orioles games so far, and is 3-7 at the plate and has looked solid behind it as well. He seems to have really meshed with the pitching staff, especially considering that he spent a large chunk of Spring Training away from the O's pitchers.

One interesting item that I came across while researching this post is that in 2015 Welington had been  traded from the Mariners to the D'Backs for two other current Orioles, Mark Trumbo and Vidal Nuno. And now they all play in Baltimore together. Baseball is funny like that sometimes.

Oriole # 1022- Michael Bourn

As I anxiously await my trip to Sarasota for Orioles Spring Training, I figure that it's about time to wrap up the 2016 debuts before the 2017 season officially starts. I will attempt to do a better job with keeping these posts timely during the upcoming season, since they are essentially about the only posts I keep up with at all these days. I think that I'm beyond apologizing for lengthy delays between posts at this point, it just is what it is, but I don't want the blog to completely die off at least.

My parents have already been enjoying the Florida weather for a few weeks now and I'm extremely jealous happy that they have are getting to watch baseball as I continue to sit around in Maryland. But since my dad enjoys getting autographs almost as much as I do, it does come with the nice benefit of his already graphing some of the players that I might need for 2017. As well as tracking down one player that I still needed from 2016, Michael Bourn.

Michael was traded to the Orioles from the Diamondbacks on August 31, 2016, made his Orioles debut on September 2, and went on the appear in 24 games for the O's over the last month of the season. He will be best remembered for starting a relay throw on September 16th against the Rays. In the top of the ninth inning, he fielded a line drive down the left field line and started a 7-5-2 relay to throw out the tying run at the plate, locking down the win and preserving Zach Britton's perfect season.

I failed in a few attempts at getting his autograph last season, and once he was included as an Oriole in the 2017 Topps set (and late the '17 Heritage set), I had to add him to my need list. As the off-season lingered without his signing with a team, I was concerned that his time in baseball might be over and I would not get a chance to have him sign one of his Orioles cards. Fortuitously, he re-signed with the Orioles on February 20th and my dad wasted no time in getting him to sign and personalize this card for my collection.

Thanks for your help yet again Old Man! I'm looking forward to joining you in Florida!

Oriole #1023- Drew Stubbs

Wow, sorry about that everyone, I have no idea how I let three plus months go by without a post, although it's become more and more common around here recently. I'm still around, I still collect Orioles autographs, but my priorities in life have just been different as my son is growing up way too quickly.

A recent, unanticipated Christmas gift has motivated me to get my act together for a post. The Orioles added a few veteran players to boost their roster at the end of 2016 and my dad quickly produced Old Man Cards of the trio of Wade Miley, Michael Bourn, and Drew Stubbs. In the few games that we were able to attend towards the end of the season while those guys were on the roster, we unfortunately struck out on getting the cards signed. So my dad took the initiative to send TTM requests to all three guys to see what might happen. I was pessimistic as none of the three seemed to really sign autographs that way, but it never hurts to try.

About a week before we did our family Christmas gift exchange, he got a self addressed envelope back and to his surprise, check out what was inside!

Two signed, personalized Drew Stubbs OMCs! It was a great gift and a truly unexpected surprise to add to my collection. It was nice to knock off another autograph before the end of 2016.

The Orioles selected Drew off of waivers from the Rangers on August 31st, and he went on to appear in 20 games for the O's. He had three hits over 22 at-bats and was mainly used as a late inning defensive replacement or pinch runner. Unfortunately, he didn't make much of an impression in Baltimore and I doubt that he will be brought back in 2017. But thankfully, I don't need to worry about tracking him down with another team to try to get these cards signed.

Thanks for all of your help Old Man. And I hope that you all have a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Oriole # 1019- Logan Ondrusek

Whew, a lot of these late season additions to the Orioles roster have given me a run for my money in my attempts to add their autographs to my collection. Which has caused me to fall behind on my debut posts as well. But don't worry, I'm still here, just busy trying to catch up with all the new guys around town.

Logan Ondrusek's signing came completely out of left field, or I suppose more accurately, Japan, where he had been pitching for the past two seasons after spending parts of his first five seasons pitching for the Reds. In a very unexpected and Dan Duquetteish transaction, the Orioles signed him to a Major League deal on July 29th and designated Chaz Roe for assignment. This was right at the trade deadline as other teams were making bigger and better moves, so I think most of the Orioles fan base was beyond puzzled by this addition to the roster.

Logan made his Orioles debut the day after being added to the roster and proceeded to pitch in seven games for the Orioles over two stints with the team. Over 6.1 IP, he allowed 9 hits, 7 earned runs which worked out to a 9.95 ERA. Needless to say, things didn't go well. He was designated for assignment on August 26th and ultimately passed through waivers and ended the season at AA Bowie.

Shortly after Logan was added to the team, I was able to trade for this signed Reds card of his through a friend on SportsCollectors.Net. So it served as a nice placeholder in my collection. However, my dad quickly churned out some Old Man Cards of Ondrusek, and it was preference to save this post until I got them signed. And that's where my attempts to get these cards signed get interesting. 

During his first stint with the Orioles, from July 30-August 11, the team only had three weekday home games which I was unable to attend. Luckily, he got optioned to the AA Bowie Baysox, which is the closest affiliate to me, so I planned to go to a game there on Friday August 19th, but something came up and I couldn't make it. So I decided to go the following Saturday, 8/29. But by that point, the Orioles had recalled him from Bowie and designated him for assignment, so he was in DFA limbo when I attended that game. The Baysox final home game of 2016 was Thursday 9/1 and the day before that it was announced that he had cleared waivers and would head back to Bowie. I went to the game with my family and we waited for Logan who was one of the last players out of the clubhouse with only about five minutes to go before first pitch. Luckily, he was a nice guy and came over to sign for us as you can tell by the cards in this post. And that's my drawn out story about how Logan's signed and personalized Old Man Cards came to my collection. I hope you enjoyed it!

Oriole #1021- Parker Bridwell

I know that I'm skipping a few debuts at this point, but July/August is always a hard time of the season to keep up with autographs on the team as players are traded or acquired from other organizations and I don't have their autographs waiting to add to my collection. So I'm going to move ahead with a debut I was prepared for; that of the Orioles 9th round draft pick in the 2010 draft, Parker Bridwell.

Parker was drafted out of Hereford High School in Texas, and apparently could have been the quarterback at Texas Tech if he had chosen to go that route, so it seems like he was an all-around gifted athlete in high school. He worked his way through every level of the Orioles minor league system over the past seven years, at times seeming like a sure-fire Major Leaguer following up with other stretches where it seemed like he would never make it to the show. 

He has consistently been ranked as one of the Orioles highest prospects, owing at least in part to their shallow farm system, and was added to the 40-man roster prior to the 2016 season to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. Parker was also invited to the big league camp for the first time in 2016 so all the signs seemed to be pointing in the right direction for him. However, during the season, he battled some injuries and was also moved to the bullpen, where it seems like the team thinks his MLB future might be, so it took most of the season before he finally got the call to the O's. He made his MLB debut on Sunday August 21st against the Astros, and pitched two innings in relative mop up duty to help out the overtaxed Orioles bullpen. He gave up two hits, including a HR, and struck out two Astros batters.

I have a number of Parker's signed minor league cards from over the years, although he pitched in Aberdeen and Delmarva, two places that I didn't often get to during the years that I made it to the most minor league games. It feels nice to once again have been prepared for the debut of a new Oriole!

Parker has always seemed like a decent guy so I hope that he has finally found his way to the Orioles permanently. Good luck to him!

Oriole #1018- Julio Borbon

Julio Borbon has lived on the periphery of the Orioles Major League roster for the past three seasons. He has been a guy whose name Buck Showalter has continued to randomly bring up at times when discussing players in the system that he likes, but Julio was consistently passed over when minor league outfielders were called up to Baltimore. I don't exactly know why that was, but he finally made his Orioles debut on July 20th.

Julio was originally brought into the Orioles fold during the Rule V draft way back in December 2013 when the team selected him from the Cubs organization. I don't know how a player who had played in almost 290 MLB games over parts of four seasons (mostly with the Rangers from 2009-11) was eligible for the Rule V draft but that's a post for another day.

The signed card at the top of this post was back in the early days of my dad's Old Man Cards and was made prior to spring training 2014. I wrote a post about this back then, but for whatever reason during my time spent chasing autographs that spring, Julio and Delmon Young were the hardest autographs for me to get. Luckily, on the last day of my trip, Julio did sign and personalize this card for me, so I've been ready for his O's debut for two and a half years.

The Orioles resigned Julio to a one year contract in 2015 and again in 2016, so there obviously seems to be something working between the team and him even though he continued to play solely in the minors. Interstingly, Julio was playing with the AA Bowie Baysox when he got called up to the Orioles, which means that at this point, the O's seem more likely to call up guys from AA than AAA to help in Baltimore. Hey, however they win is fine with me.

Once he made his Orioles debut, Julio played in five consecutive games for the team, and went 2-9 with a run scored. The team then outrighted him back the minors, which he apparently could have refused, but he once again opted to stay in the organization. So maybe we will see Julio in Baltimore again at some point, possibly in another 2-3 seasons.